


Maddox Meets His Match

by MayRaven1798



Series: Alternative Lal [5]
Category: Star Trek: The Next Generation
Genre: ? - Freeform, Daystrom Institute (Star Trek), Developing Friendships, Education, F/M, Friends to Lovers, Headcanon, Healing, preconceived ideas about a person
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-04
Updated: 2020-12-06
Packaged: 2021-03-09 19:15:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 7,754
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27881365
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MayRaven1798/pseuds/MayRaven1798
Summary: Lal and Maddox get better acquainted.This is the interlude between stories in this series where Lal goes to the Daystrom Institute. It’s a short story to fill in some of her experiences and show more of Bruce Maddox and how they get along.Chapter titles pertain to Maddox’s less than desirable personal attributes.Update: Authors joke about how they sometimes write stories that no one asked for. Well, I think I cracked it. After such a lukewarm reception it is safe to say that literally no one asked for this story. So I’m still posting it because I like it, but you can skip it :/
Relationships: Lal & Bruce Maddox, Lal/Bruce Maddox
Series: Alternative Lal [5]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1982974
Comments: 2
Kudos: 3





	1. Self-Involved

**Author's Note:**

> Maddox ignores Lal. Big mistake. A lot of set-up.

The journey to Earth didn’t bother her. Lal was used to long stretches alone. It gave her a reason to tryout her smalltalk algorithms. It was fascinating what other people preferred to talk about. There was a diplomat who could not stop droning on about his beloved vegetable garden. He was worried because he had left the precious plants in the care of his wife. Lal thought this was a logical choice until the man told her how his wife could never keep anything green alive. 

Then there was the older woman with purple hair. Lal thought she may have been royalty since she always dressed in most luxurious costumes; a different one every time she came out of her rooms. 

The android really wanted to find out more about her, but the distinguished traveller seemed preoccupied with her little fluffy dog. She spoke to it like a child, or at times, like a baby. Lal tried once to talk to her about her cat (her father’s more specifically), but was met with revulsion. Lal decided this woman was clearly a dog-person.

The children were the easiest to enjoy. Over the years Lal had become more natural with them and they were eager to play games and tell each other stories. Lal found that she gravitated to being around the children often and would miss them most of all. The Daystrom Institute was not a place where people were encouraged to bring their families.

Dr. Bruce Maddox did not meet Lal when her transport arrived. Instead she was met by one of his assistants, Sokel. The Vulcan woman looked to be twenty-five at most, but Vulcan ages were always tricky for Lal. She kept her eye on the young android, but did her best not to stare. The assistant showed her to her new living quarters and gave her an itinerary. At least that these seemed to be have been arranged by Dr. Maddox. 

The next day, an intern met her and gave her a tour of the Institute. This young man did stare, without apology. His name was Christopher, but he insisted she call him ‘Topher’. He was bolder, or perhaps less inhibited than Sokel. He eagerly asked many questions about how she perceived things as an android. 

He wanted to know if she ever got cold; did she feel pain; or was she ticklish? He also asked if she was musical; played an instrument; or if she could sing. Sadly, Topher never stoped talking long enough for her to give a proper answer. Eventually, she found herself contemplating his goatee and lovely caramel skin, rather than trying to reply or any of his many questions.

On Lal’s second day, she audited one of Dr. Maddox’s lectures. She found him to be knowledgeable, as always. However she also found him to be verbose. As Geordi would say, ‘he must really love the sound of his own voice’. It stood to reason that as a leading mind in cybernetic research he would have a lot to say. She just did not realize that he could spend the better part of a day speaking at length about only one small aspect of his work.

On the third day Lal had a scheduled meeting with Dr. Maddox at 09:30 hours. When she arrived promptly, ten minutes early of course, she was told that he had to cancel. So Lal spoke to his assistant, Sokel, and was told to come back that afternoon at 15:15 hours sharp.

Lal went out to walk the ground and enjoy her day. She didn’t have any clearance yet, so she couldn’t walk freely inside the institute, or discuss anyone’s research. She came back to Maddox’s office at the designated time. This time she was told that she had just missed him. This of course was impossible. Being an android meant that she had a perfect memory and flawless recall and was never late for anything, unless it was intentional. 

This time it was a different assistant. He nervously requested that she not ‘make a big deal out of it’ and ‘these things happened’. Lal didn’t want to get anyone in trouble, but her time was valuable too. She was not a visiting relative, she had been invited to study and be an invaluable resource to Maddox’s research. Her patience was beginning to wear thin.

As she headed back to her room, with a new time to meet him tomorrow, she began to realize that everyone might have been right to warn her after all. Her friends and family back on the Enterprise all had similar words of caution. ‘Maddox is not your friend’ and ‘Maddox may not be as hands on as he led you to believe’.

This was fine. She could deal with staring assistants and overly interested interns. What she could not abide is how Bruce Maddox could not seem to give her the mere courtesy of welcoming her in person when she was there in part because he had invited her.

So, Lal decided to take a different approach. She decided to digest her itinerary and stick to it. If Maddox himself hadn’t cleared her for what he had already set up, she would just have to show up and shove his pre-approved schedule in people’s faces.

Not surprisingly, Maddox hadn’t shown his face in his office by 10:00 hours when she was told to be there. So, off she went. First up was a practical lab session to review the newest programming subroutines of the latest AI.

Lal walked confidently by one of the security officers; a second stopping her as the first caught up.

“Excuse me Miss, but only authorized personnel are allowed past this security check point,” he said with authority.

Lal smiled sweetly, but refrained from batting her eyes. “I have an approved itinerary from Dr. Bruce Maddox that states that I am to accompany him as he overseas his projects today,” she informed him. Then she showed him her special itinerary, which he promptly ignored.

“That’s fine, but without a clearance badge you can’t go into any of those labs,” said the other officer, pointing at his own badge to show what he was talking about.

“I assure you that I am allowed to be here. I am not just interested in cybernetics as a subject, I am a subject of cybernetics,” she said adamantly. When they both stared at her, bewildered, she added, “I am an android.”

Both officers snickered and gave one another a look. Lal knew it well. It was that condescending ‘she must be bonkers’ look. Her uncle, Lore, was a master of this look.

“What did you say your name was?” asked one of the security officers as he came into her personal space.

“I did not say as of yet. My name is Lal.”

“Lal...what?” snarked the second security officer.

“It is only Lal. However, if you prefer, I am technically the daughter of Lieutenant Commander Data, Second Officer of the Starship Enterprise.”

“Sure and I’m the son of the Easter Bunny,” said the first officer, words dripping with sarcasm.

Lal was growing impatient. They really should employ more intelligent officers. “One would expect more tolerance and understanding from Starfleet. Did you two graduate at the bottom of your class?”

They both stopped laughing at her and frowned. The second officer gave her another warning. 

“Okay, I think you need to go back the way you came and come back when you have clearance, or not at all.”

“If I refuse?”

The first officer looked her up and down before taking her by the arm. He couldn’t quite believe that he wasn’t able to move her. “What the hell? You don’t look that strong,” he complained.

“Ha ha, very funny,” scoffed number two. Then he had a go at removing her and almost tripped to floor when her immovability took him by surprise. 

“I told you,” she said purposefully, slow enough so that maybe they would understand her this time. “I...am...an...android.”

The two men straightened up and looked lost for words. It was then that the intern came up behind her.

“Hello, Lal,” Topher said brightly. “What’s keeping you?”

“They are,” she replied, as she rudely pointed at the security detail.

“Oh, I see. You can back off. ‘Small Wonder’ is with me,” he said.

Lal could tell that the ‘overly interested intern’ was being kind, however she wasn’t sure how to feel about what he had just called her.

“‘Small Wonder’? Is that a reference to something? My size perhaps?” she asked as she followed Topher down the hallway. She didn’t want to pick a fight, she was honestly very grateful to him for his intervention.

He paused and turned back to face her. “Apologies, it was a reference to this very, very old television series. I’m rather obsessed with strange, old popular culture. It isn’t a bad thing. It was the fictional story of a robot girl who lived with a human family and tried to learn how to be human; they called the robot girl ‘Small Wonder’.”

Lal grinned at Topher. She had to admit that she liked the idea too. “I approve. I will not protest if you call me this in future, Topher.”

“Cheers. I knew I was going to like you,” he beamed, cheeks flushing slightly, complimenting his caramel complexion.

“You are much more helpful than anyone else I have met so far.”

“Probably because I’m intern. I’m here because I freaking love this stuff...sorry not stuff,” he corrected as he realized he could offend her heritage. “The science and engineering of it all.”

“As do I,” she added kindly.

.....


	2. Arrogance

True to form, Maddox was deeply submersed in his own thoughts and theories as he discussed the new developments in artificial intelligence that were being proposed. He didn’t notice Topher and Lal as they slipped into the lab and stood back, listening in.

“The biggest plight we now face is not the limitations of our genius, but of what regulation and bureaucracy will tolerate. How does one create an intelligence that is capable of implementing any number of tasks and diverse instruction, while being inhibited to not desire to explore, grow and educate itself beyond that which we program them? It’s like planting a sampling beside a fence and informing it that it should wither and die rather than change and innovate it’s patterns of growth so that it not only thrives, but overcomes its’ obstacle; and one day the tree may devour the fence.”

“I think you inadvertently made a case against your argument, sir.”

Bruce Maddox was not inviting discussion. He was simply voicing his own concerns. So when he heard the impertinent comment from someone behind him, someone whose voice he didn’t recognize, his hackles went up.

“Who said that?” Maddox implored, harshly. “Who rudely interrupted and thinks that they were required to speak?”

As he turned around to face his colleagues, assistants and interns a hand went up. People parted so that the scientist could see the offending party.

Lal slowly lowered her hand and gripped her PADD. “I did, Dr. Maddox. I believe that what you said about the tree evolving to the point of devouring a sturdy, reliable structure like a fence actually speaks to why the Federation is scrambling to restrict your advances in AI technology. They do not want it to unintentionally evolve beyond the need of organic life and thus devalue and perhaps destroy it. Which you already knew, of course.”

Maddox seemed at a loss. He wasn’t so much staring at her, as he was looking straight into her in a way that made her feel more than a little intimidated. 

“Yes, I see what you mean,” he said. His tone was just as cold, but his words lost their edge. “Why don’t you take over Dr. Van Mure. I would to have a word with our guest.”

The room erupted into murmurs and theories of who she was as they left out the main doors. Topher would have been first to tell them all, but Delar gave him a disparaging look and shook her head. 

Out in the hall Maddox stopped and turned abruptly to face Lal. Now that they were alone he could speak more freely.

“What are doing here, Lal?” he asked less than kindly.

“You invited me to study with you,” she said, suddenly concerned that he had forgotten her all together.

“Not at the Institute,” he scolded with the addition of an exasperated sigh. “Why were you in there; in the AI lab?”

“Oh,” she said as she momentarily reconsidered her answer. He looked ready to send her home, so she made sure to honest. “Because it was on my itinerary that I should be shadowing you today, only every time I have tried to meet with you to discuss things, you have been indisposed or too busy to see me.”

“So you decided to forgo proper channels of authorization and sneak into highly classified areas of this Institute and spy on my work?” he questioned with accusation.

“I am certain that you can appreciate that I was not about to allow one pesky little fence get in my way,” she joked.

Maddox’s face had been fixed into a chilling scowl of disapproval. He was a man of science, logic and above all, process and regulation. There were rules for a reason and people needed to follow them. But Lal was not just any person; she was her father’s daughter. Data would have done the same and would never have tolerated being ignored either, he was sure of it. 

Suddenly, the ice broke on his chilly facade and Maddox laughed at her silly allusion to her being a tree. “I suppose I left you little choice,” he said with a chuckle. “You are remarkable. I would have expected you to sit dutifully for days and wait for my permission. But here you are, reminding me of what an arrogant ass I can be. Thank you, Lal.”

Lal warmed to his genuine sincerity and decided to forgive him. He was, after all, only human. She smiled up at him to show her appreciation for his uncharacteristic humility. “Can we start again? This time with respect?”

“I think that would be best, don’t you?” Maddox said in response.

After that day they got on well—most of the time. Of course Maddox was still beyond busy and consumed with his own work and opinions, but somehow Lal slowly worked her way into his routines. She wasn’t an assistant, or an intern. Officially, she was noted as an independent consultant. She didn’t have any specific credentials, or education except for her own person understanding of Dr. Soong’s work through her father and her own inherent knowledge as she was a Soong-Type android. The rest she was willing to learn and he was eager to teach.

Maddox thought it would be best not to divulge her background to everyone. He made a game of seeing how long it would take his brightest and most favoured colleagues and students to determine her true nature. At times it was astounding how long it took some of them to realize who and what she was. He delighted in the looks on each of their faces. Strangely, so did Lal.

.......


	3. Inconsiderate

Lal was quite distracted after returning from a visit to San Francisco to see her boyfriend. If she had been anyone else, Maddox would have written off her lack of concentration as travel exhaustion, or at the very least a change in time-zones messing with her sleep patterns. But Lal was not organic by nature and she should have no trouble adapting to any schedule. 

“You seem to be having trouble remaining focused today,” Maddox stated, keeping his voice low. “Are you functioning within acceptable parameters?”

Anyone else would have asked if she was alright and treated her like a person. Maddox couldn’t help but treat her like an android, however she found his current condescending tone unnecessary.

“I am well, thank you,” she answered curtly. “I will do better to pay attention.”

“Strange, I wouldn’t think that you would need to try to do better,” he said rather coldly. “Perhaps if you are missing your little boyfriend you should go back to be with him and leave the rest of us—who actually care about the work we’re doing—to it.”

As Maddox walked away from her, Lal swallowed her pride and got back on task. She refused to allow him to bully her into leaving.

“What did he say to you, Small Wonder?” whispered Topher as he discreetly joined her.

“It does not matter, Topher. He found my work ethic lacking and I intend to improve it.”

“That man has no heart. He doesn’t even care that something might be troubling you?” asked Topher, repulsed by his mentor’s uncaring demeanour. “What is troubling you, Lal? Do you want to talk about it?”

She knew that he was just being supportive, but it wasn’t good timing and she had no desire to be called out twice. So she shut him down.

“Perhaps later. Right now we both have work to do,” she told him sharply as she kept her eye on Maddox to be sure that he wasn’t heading back her way.

“We’ll get drinks after,” he whispered as he took her hint. She was grateful that she had one friend she could count on and even more grateful that he was now going back to his own station.

Lal stayed later than anyone else that day. She had already completed three times the work of any one person, but she was reluctant to leave. She wasn’t avoiding Topher exactly. It was more like she was avoiding her life outside of the lab.

The only other person still in the building was Bruce Maddox. He was on his way out when he noticed the lights through the glass doors. He walked briskly into the room and stopped short when he saw that it was Lal burning the proverbial midnight oil.

“The work will still be here tomorrow,” he announced as he began to approach her. “I feel that everyone needs balance in their lives and should have equal hours in the real world as they do in the lab.”

“You are still here,” she countered, stating the obvious.

“Ah, touché,” he rebutted. “I don’t count. This is my life.”

“I was just about to leave, Dr. Maddox. You have no need to worry about me,” she explained, rather colder than he had been expecting.

He watched her gather her things and shutdown her station. She continued to advert her gaze from him and quite literally gave him the cold shoulder.

“I was trying to be nice, yet somehow I feel as though you are mad at me,” he said.

“You are not nice. You are are civil at best, but you, sir, are never ‘nice’. It is beneath you.”

Maddox looked hurt by her accusation. “You are mad at me. Astonishing.”

She looked at him then. No, she glared. “I am perfectly capable of a wide range of emotions. I am not some mere machine; or has my brief absence made you forget this fact?”

“Not at all. And I never doubted your capabilities, Lal,” he reassured her. “I was concerned that you were having second thoughts about your commitments here. You are free to leave whenever you like.”

“I want to be here,” she snapped.

Maddox let out a snicker as she passed him. She stopped and turned on her heel to face him, much like he had that first day she finally got his attention.

“Are you laughing at me?”

The scientist paled and straightened his posture. “No...no, I’m laughing at my own stupidity,” he confessed. “You just came back from visiting your boyfriend and clearly something deeply personal is bothering you, but I treated you like an unfeeling computer instead of showing you some compassion. For that, I am truly sorry.”

She gasped at him for a solid minute. “You are apologizing?”

“Yes, and I’m sorry if your visit wasn’t what you had been hoping for. Wesley is an idiot if he didn’t make time for you and give you the attention that you deserve.”

“There were complications...things beyond his control,” she said quietly, regretfully.

“There usual are,” he noted with a heavy sigh. “That’s why I don’t bother getting involved anymore. Relationships take time and effort that I don’t have to give. Besides, I heard a rumour that I’m heartless,” he added with quirk to his lips.

“You heard your intern? I swear to you that he was only trying to make me feel better,” she said in Topher’s defence.

“Oh please, I’ve overheard far worse things said about me,” he replied dismissively. “I won’t kick him out.”

She gave him a smile to show her gratitude. “Thank you and goodnight, sir.”

“Goodnight, Lal. I will see you again tomorrow, I trust?”

“Yes, sir; bright and early. You should go home as well and get some sleep.”

Maddox nodded and watched her walk through the glass doors. That was the first time in a while that someone had suggested he take care of himself out of kindness. Usually he was being berated by his physician for not taking care of himself. No one else seemed to give a fig what he did.

“You are definitely more than any mere machine,” he commented to himself before he shut off the last of the lights and locked the door behind him.

......


	4. Cold/Unmovable

A few days later, Lal showed up late. She was only there to catalogue his latest transcriptions and logs, but her tardiness did not go unnoticed.

“You’re late,” said Maddox in hushed tones as he leaned on her workstation.

“I did not think that you would be here today,” she retorted without giving it much thought.

“Oh, so my perceived absence gives you a free pass to arrive whenever is convenient? Your work schedule is only a suggestion?” he questioned sarcastically. “I know that you have a healthy advantage, being an android and all, but I hold you to the same standards as everyone else. Be here on time tomorrow.”

Maddox thought he saw her out of the corner of his eye, pulling a face, just as his turned his back to her. It was doubtful that she could so rudely defiant, but he could hear a few snickers from the closest of his interns. 

“Is this a joke? Am I, or my work, a joke to you, Lal?” he asked as he whipped around to face her again. He thought she was sorted. He was under the impression that she wanted to be here.

Then she did it again. Only now he could see now that it was some sort of involuntary twitch involving her eye, cheek and right shoulder. 

“No sir, I didn’t mean anything by it—.” She tried to apologize, but he made her stop.

“Come with me,” he said with more understanding. 

Lal followed him out of the room and down a long corridor. They entered one of the restricted, practical labs; Maddox used his key card and let them in. 

“Sit,” he instructed as he pointed her towards a steel, swivel chair. She did as she was told, still uncertain of what he was going to say or do.

“How long have you been twitching?” he asked as he opened a drawer and searched for whatever he might need.

“Since last night. I ran a self-diagnostic and I cannot discover the issue,” she explained. Then she did it again.

“Let me guess, instead of asking for help you tried to correct the problem yourself and when you still hadn’t fixed it, you came in late instead of coming to me directly?” 

“Yes, Dr. Maddox,” she admitted, sheepishly.

“If you were human and experiencing isolated seizures, or at the very least symptoms of severe stress induced, Tourette’s like spasms, do you think it would be alright not to seek medical attention?” His tone was not of anger, or frustration. He sounded hurt and saddened that she wouldn’t come to him.

“No, sir,” she replied promptly.

“Do you trust me?” he asked softly as he pulled up a chair beside her.

She honestly had to consider his question for a moment. Professionally, she knew that she could trust him. She knew that her father would end him if anything happened to her because of something he did, or did not do. Personally, she wasn’t sure. He was not like so many other humans she had known. Most of the time he so sure of himself that it left little room for anyone else to affect him. But as she stared into his impossibly dark eyes, she could see a new sort of kindness there. It made her see that their relationship was starting to change and for some reason that made her very nervous.

“Yes, sir,” she answered despite her unshared doubts.

“Good,” he sighed with a hint of a smile. He took a moment to organize his tools. Then he picked up a scanner and took some diagnostic readings. He allowed her to spasm a few times as to pinpoint the cause.

“Okay, Miss Lal...you have a little input processing feedback glitch. I suppose it’s rather like a pinched nerve. The good news is that it is not originating in your brain, but in the processor of your upper spine.”

As he explained he swivelled her in the chair and gently pressed his thumbs into her top thoracic vertebrae. Of course it was going to take more than a simple chiropractic adjustment by his human hands. He was just showing her where the ‘pinch’ was.

“Can you correct it?” she asked over her shoulder, causing another twitch.

“I believe so. I shouldn’t need to cut open any of your bioplast,” he told her. She could feel him shift behind her, keeping one large, warm hand on the nape of her neck. 

He applied a device, something cold and metallic, to the exposed synthetic flesh next to her right shoulder blade. Luckily, she liked to wear dresses with scooped necks and he didn’t have to adjust her top much to gain access. 

“Have you been feeling stressed, Lal, or do you think this is this a physical injury?”

“No more stressed than usual, I suppose. I do use my right hand most frequently, perhaps over-use has caused the problem.”

She could already feel a difference as the device seemed to relax whatever components had bent in on themselves. She could also feel the reassuring, but completely redundant message of Maddox’s thumb along her cervical spine. It wasn’t bothering her, but she was acutely aware that he might be verging on inappropriate behaviour.

“Hmm, perhaps you should take to routinely stretching,” said Maddox as he increased the level in the device. “You probably didn’t sit typing and cataloguing quite as much in your previous day to day life. I did warn you about working too hard.”

She giggled a little at his words, the device was really releasing whatever tension had knotted up her synthetic muscles and inner workings. 

“How was I supposed to know that you were right?” she rebutted only half-joking.

“Haven’t you figured it out by now? I’m always right,” he teased with a glint in his eye. 

She could just see his face, he was leaning over her shoulder quite intimately. The moment might have felt more sensitive if she wasn’t laughing. Which she was. Not so much because what he said was humorous, but because he was trying to be humorous. It was quite unexpected.

Soon enough, his work was done. It was strange to think that all that fuss with her face and shoulder was caused by a pinch in her upper back.

“Thank you, Dr. Maddox. I will come to you the next time I am experiencing any problems,” she said with gratitude.

“Glad to hear it,” he said with a grin as he rolled away from her in his chair. “I did detect a similar tension in your network lower down your spine, but I’m sure if you do some stretches and make time for walks it will sort itself out.”

“Why not simply correct it now so that I do not have to concern myself?” she inquired frankly. “What if I suddenly cannot walk, or the feedback causes me to speak another language as though I were possessed?” She tone was lighthearted, but they both knew how serious something like that could be.

“Alright, as long as you don’t mind,” he said, though he sounded less than sure about it. “I’ll need access to lower back. I suppose if you lie facedown on the table, I can lift your dress. If I have your permission, of course.”

“The bulky fabric might be cumbersome. I can remove my dress if that would be better,” she offered.

Maddox cleared his throat as though he were suddenly very nervous. “If that would be alright with you? I suppose that would make things go a little faster,” he conceded. 

She was sure that she detected a change in his tone; speaking in a slightly higher octave than what was normal for him. She brushed it off as his social anxiety. They had never been alone, one on one, for so long before. And after how he had subconsciously touched her neck—she was certain he had no idea he was doing it—his nerves were expected.

As she began to unfasten her dress, Maddox turned his back to give her some privacy. She signalled him when she was ready and he was happy to find her front pressed against the table top and hidden from view. 

It was ridiculous really. He was a scientist and she was his subject. He decided that he was only having second thoughts because he had been trying so hard not to see her as an android, but as a woman of substance. Either way, she was trusting him to help her and not to do something perverted.

He took another scan, his eyes wandering the plains of smooth alabaster skin along her back. “Your father did a remarkable job. You look so alive and vital,” he told her with sincerity.

“I will tell him of your praise when we speak next,” she replied.

She could feel him apply the same device to her lower spine. The same result began to happen and tensions that had gone unnoticed started to loosen. This time when he increased the level on the settings a gasp escaped her lips.

“Did it hurt?” asked Maddox. Ready to remove the offending device from her synthetic flesh.

“No, it did not hurt,” she confessed, “it was quite the opposite.”

“Oh,” he said with relief. But then his brain caught up to her meaning. “Oh!” He said again, louder this time. “Should I get you off? I mean...take it off...of you?” he sputtered, face crimson with the embarrassment at his unmistakable Freudian slip.

“What does your scan say?” she requested, business as usually, pretending nothing weird just happened between them.

Maddox fumbled, unseen behind her and checked another scan. “Looks good. You should be fine now,” he informed her. Then he tapped the device, deactivating and detaching it.

Once it was removed she waited for him to turn around, which he did. He held out her dress to her as he kept his eyes closed.

“Dr. Maddox?” 

He could tell that she was standing directly in front of him and he opened his eyes—slowly. She was dressed and looking as she always did. Polite and lovely. “Yes, Lal?”

“Thank you for all of your help. I will return to my work now,” she said.

“Yes, of course. You’re very welcome,” he said, a little more strained than intended.

He started to put his tools away and he told himself to forget that he ever heard that soft, little gasp. It was none of his business. Sure, he knew that Data had a sexuality program and it was only logical that Lal had one too; but that was always something he knew only through documentation and theory. 

Then he suddenly remembered one his first ever conversations with Lal. She had just started to discover her sexual nature and said something about how intercourse felt as though she and her lover were becoming one person. At the time he thought she had read too much romantic nonsense. But now, if this was clinical proof that she was capable of carnal pleasure, she could have been referencing sexual climax.

Maddox wiped a hand over his sweaty brow before correcting himself again. “It’s none of your damned business; she is your subordinate, not your test subject; and certainly not some sexual plaything.” 

Except now the thought was there. Not only was she brilliant, confident, determined and brave; she was also beautiful and very sexy. 

.....


	5. Heartless

Over their eighteen months together, Lal’s relationship with Maddox was professional. Even though they were becoming more familiar, they were always careful to keep a cool distance between them. This worked well for them, until about a week before she was due to leave. She would meet up with her boyfriend in San Francisco and make the trip home to the Enterprise.

Lal was backing up all of her data and making sure that all of her personal research was logged appropriately in the Institute’s databanks. Maddox came to check in on her, as though he was missing her constant company.

“I thought I would find you here,” he mused as he sat across from her at the workstation. “Most people avoid the archives room. They find it cold and tomb-like. But you and I are like-minded. We appreciate the time and care that goes into the collecting and upkeep of this vast and very precious knowledge kept here.”

Lal stopped working for a moment to meet his gaze. She smiled, but something about her seemed off to him today. If he was being honest, something had been off with her ever since she’d returned from her last visit with her boyfriend, several months ago. However, this was much too personal for Maddox to ask about. 

All he knew was that circumstances kept them apart more than she would have liked. He used the excuse that it was his policy to keep out of everyone’s personal lives as much as possible. The sad truth was that he knew he couldn’t trust himself with getting too close to her and he wanted a rift between them.

“Don’t tell me you’re having second thoughts about going home?” he asked, hoping it wasn’t too intrusive. It was all she could talk about these days. That and reuniting with Wesley.

“I am not thinking about that,” she assured him. “I am thinking that Topher and I will no longer be friends after today.”

“Which one is he again?”

Lal frowned at him and his inability to remember everyone’s names. “He is your intern with goatee and ‘verbal diarrhea’ as you so eloquently put it the other day.”

“Ah yes, Christopher; the young euro-asian with the annoying facial hair,” Maddox reiterated with a frown of his own. “What is it he calls you? Little Wonder?”

“Small Wonder,” she corrected astutely. Not that it mattered, she would probably never hear him call her that in the future.

Maddox nodded before continuing. “Now that is a young man with more intelligence than common sense. Sometimes I think he might pass-out, he talks so much. He talks more than even I do, sometimes,” he added with a chuckle. 

“He made the mistake of misinterpreting our close friendship as something more...romantic in nature,” she confided.

“Ah, and you reminded him that you are already attached to young Mr. Crusher and he got overly emotional about it?” Maddox guessed with accuracy.

“That is exactly what happened. I value our friendship and I never intended to lead him on,” she said with dismay. “I still cannot believe that he waited all of this time to confess such a thing.”

“Maybe he had the same reservations that anyone would have. It’s difficult to admit that you might be developing an emotional attachment to a woman who has already decided her own destiny. Or perhaps he felt compelled to tell just in case you decided not to come back to Daystrom; because he would never get another chance.”

Lal regarded her mentor. In all of the time that she had known him, he was the last person to speak of matters of the heart. As far as she could tell, he was the sort of personality that saw physical affection as messy. He had even told her once that romantic love was an unnecessary distraction from his work. He had never been married and never spoke of any lovers. As far as she could tell he was—what was the term? He was ‘married to his work’.

“So you agree that he was right to chance ruining an important friendship on a gamble that I might choose him over my long-term boyfriend and returning to my father?”

“Lord, no,” scoffed Maddox. “But I’m not him. I’m me.” 

“I am glad that you are you, sir,” she said lighthearted, teasing him. “Sometimes it is a person’s steadfast constants that make me feel the most confident not only in them, but in myself,” she told him with reverence. “I believed that I could rely on Topher and I was adamant that his feelings would not stop me from continuing to be his friend. Unfortunately, he became offended and said that I did not know what love really is if I believed we could remain friends at all.”

Maddox shook his head slowly, feeling pity for his young intern. “What a silly thing, pride. I would rather be your friend for all my days than let a moment of misguided passion separate us forever. He’s young; he’ll learn.”

Lal thought she picked up an honest moment from Maddox. As though he wasn’t speaking figuratively when he said ‘I would rather’, but was maybe revealing his own truth about how he saw her and their relationship.

“Ah, yes,” she said, testing her theory, “but you have the advantage of not having fallen in love with me.”

Maddox didn’t answer her directly. He simply smiled and patted her hand from across the table. “I have to get back work,” he said as he stood. “But if your invitation to join you for dinner before you leave still stands, I would like the chance to see you off; especially after that piss-poor welcome I gave you.”

“Of course. That would be wonderful,” she replied kindly, holding back anything that might make him feel uneasy about his decision to be so open with her. She could tell that it was difficult for him and she had to agree with his thinking. She too valued their friendship and would hate to accidentally belittle, or damage it in anyway.

“Good. Send me the details directly and I’ll make sure not to be late.”

......

Of course Maddox was running late. Lal tried not to scream as she entered the man’s personal quarters and slammed her hands down on his desk where he was working, oblivious to what time it was.

“Can I help you?” he grumbled without giving her the courtesy of eye contact,

“It is already time to meet Wesley and his friend for dinner and we have not even gone to the transport platform; which means that you have already made us at least fifteen minutes late.” She made her point in one long, run-on sentence with a good amount of urgency.

“Oh, right. Go without me,” he said dismissively as he stood and shrugged. “I know Wesley doesn’t care for me. You’ll have a better time if I stay here.” Then he came around his desk and gave her a hardy pat on the back. “My invitation for you to return stands...come back anytime and contact me about anything you might come up with pertaining to our work.”

When he tried to move away from her, Lal caught his arm. “Unacceptable. You said that you wanted to see me off properly.”

Maddox flushed a little and pulled out of her grasp. “Yes, but that was before I realized that you will technically be leaving Earth in the morning and it would be better to say our goodbyes here.”

She wasn’t buying it. He was being difficult for some reason other than his usual arrogance. “What if I told you that I am hurt by how flippant you are being about my departure?”

Maddox walked a few paces away from her before turning back and giving her a first glimpse of his humanity since his slip in the lab the other day. No longer was he the stern, studious man of science; now he was just a man who looked very sad to hear her think so little of him.

“I didn’t mean to come off as flippant,” he said, repeating her term with undeniable hurt in his voice. “I just don’t think I can go and sit through an entire dinner with this man that you’ve decided to share your life with. I thought it wouldn’t bother me, but it does. It bothers me that he is somehow more worthy of your time and affection all because he knew you first.”

“Wesley and I have shared so much, have been through so much together. He has earned my love.”

“I didn’t say that your choice was wrong. I would never want you to feel as though you could be wrong; I simply don’t like it,” he explained. “I’m an arrogant, self-involved, pompous, man—more brain than man, really. And I almost always get exactly what I want. Except that I knew that I couldn’t have you; couldn’t keep you. I knew I was only borrowing you. And I know I said that thing about being friends for life—I meant it, most sincerely—but please don’t make me sit at a table and make inane small talk with the man who gets to go home with you.”

Lal had never seen him so naked with his feelings before. It put Topher’s little tantrum to shame. She couldn’t deny how she had secretly hoped that Maddox could love her, especially when she feared that her relationship with Wesley was coming to a natural end. But all these months and she never saw it. There was never a clue or any indication that he had an attraction, let alone any affection for her. Even when she was half-naked in his lab she thought he was uneasy because she was woman, not because he liked her that way.

“Am I to understand that you have developed a stronger attachment to me than mere friendship?”

Maddox couldn’t look at her. His hands were trembling and he was trying to keep from making things all the worse.

Lal closed the distance between them and reached her hand to touch his cheek; it was rough with stubble and she noted that his was so unlike his usual well-groomed self. She gently guided his gaze back to her face. “Are you in love with me, Bruce?”

“All that matters is that you are in love with someone else,” he said quietly. “I won’t make you choose because I already know your answer. So, let us be friends and colleagues and I will get over my silly indiscretion; because you mean so much more to me than any lover could. You are the perfect realization of one man’s work and the beautiful embodiment of my every aspiration.”

She had never heard anything so poetic, or quite so lovely from him before. She leaned up and wrapped her arms around his neck. Before either of them could come to the rational conclusion that this was a mistake, she kissed him. To her surprise he kissed her back. 

It was calculated, rigid and not very passionate, but it was honest and it was exactly how she would have expected him to kiss. His predictability made her smile against his lips.

“That wasn’t very good, was it?” he said with hesitation. He wasn’t used to being bad at something.

“No, it was wonderful, because it was you,” she said warmly.

Her desire to encourage him made him want to do better. He leaned down and kissed her a second time. This time was softer, a touch more spontaneous, and all together more emotional. This time she could feel his need to hold onto her and it was difficult not to feel the same way.

“Does this mean that you’ll stay?” he dared to ask as they parted. The renewed hope in his voice was almost heartbreaking,

“I do not know that I can,” she confessed. “I need to see Wesley. I need to know if there is any chance that we can still build a life together. I hope you will understand...my life with him is my dream.”

Maddox pulled back so that he could look at her better. “Yes, Lal. I understand. I’ve waited all this time to know you, really know you; and we both know that I need at least two goes at social norms. So if you need to follow through and get the answers you seek, I will be here. Even if you never come back, I will still be here if you should ever need me; professional or otherwise.”

Lal threw her arms around him again, this time to hug him. Maddox was terrible at hugs too, it would seem; but slowly he relaxed and held her small form tightly against him.

“Please come to dinner,” she begged.

“Fine,” he conceded as he regained composure, willing away unshed tears. He refused to be weak about this. He was a man of science, after all. He wasn’t going to let a few chemical reactions rule his life. “Maybe I can help you see how different you and your Wesley are now.”

“Please do not be unkind to him,” she requested with a wince.

“Never. I will be on my best behaviour. Now let’s go, we’re already so late.”

.........

To be continued in “Growing Pains”

**Author's Note:**

> So....sigh...another story no one asked for but me. Hopefully someone will like it :)


End file.
